Keorapetse Kgositsile

Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938–2018) was chosen as South Africa’s national poet laureate in 2006. He taught at the University of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi University, and Sarah Lawrence College. His publications include The Present Is a Dangerous Place to Live, If I Could Sing: Selected Poems, and This Way I Salute You. Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is an award-winning South African writer, performance artist, and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Uhuru Portia Phalafala is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University.

“If I could sing, after a sudden rain, I would certainly praise in my song Keorapetse Kgositsile’s poetry because it was shaped by his body and his soul, both of them existing all along a marvelous and historical lifetime-Willie’s property-forever beginning, forever laughing, like he did himself, inspired, nourished by Afrika, the deep and wise homeland of our own. His transparent voice was given to the service of freedom, all over the planet. Kgositsile is like his fellow poet David Diop, a strong ‘spirit, ever since unchained.’ And I will always say to him: Thanks, brother, ‘You are what Man should be.’”-Nancy MorejÓn, author of Before A Mirror, The City and Homing Instincts/Querencias “[Kgositsile’s] poems transcend the superficial definitions which some might attempt to make on the basis of quick-draw ideologies, tactics and postures from yesterday’s conferences, and keep their fingers on the pulsations of the Black soul history. That emotional history, with its consequent cry for steadiness and action, for undeviating clear-sightedness, for rejection of death, in its range of reference and feeling, jumps forth in these pages as truly deep Pan-Africanism-the truly joining thing.”-George Kent, introduction to The Present is a Dangerous Place to Live “When trying to find texts to compare Kgositsile with one thinks of Pablo Neruda of Chile, GarcÍa Lorca of Spain, Agostinho Neto of Angola, Okot p’Bitek of Uganda, and Thomas McGrath of the United States. . . . There is something magical in the way the personae of these poems seemingly start in one direction, reverse, or deviate to side paths, and then deftly start in an entirely different one to begin anew on another plane of reality. This is the work of a poet hearing his own muse and inventing an original expression as medium for the oracle.”-Sterling Plumpp, foreword to If I Could Sing “What Kgositsile has to say is too urgent for the conceit and fanciful ambiguity of literary artifice.”-Chinua Achebe “The young want to move and they want everything else to move-including poetry. Willie Kgositsile’s poetry lunges, strains its muscles-and barks or howls or richly murmurs or screams.”-Gwendolyn Brooks, introduction to My Name Is Afrika

• Editors’ Note: In the Original . . .Introduction in Two MovementsSpirits Unchained (1969)To GloriaFor LeRoi Jones, April, 1965When Brown Is BlackBrother Malcolm’s EchoMandela’s SermonElegy for David DiopIvory Masks in OrbitLumumba SectionSpirits UnchainedTo FanonSong for AimÉ CÉsaireMy Name Is AfrikaFor Spellman at SpelmanI Am Music PeopleOriginsFor Melba (1970)And the Long StorySong for Melbammabatho: Dakar, 1966The CreatorIndeed in DeedFor Those Who Love & CareTrue BlueOf Death and LivesDeath DosesDeath Doses No. 2Death Doses No. 3My People When Nothing MovesCome Duze3000 Miles ApartOf Us for UsIn TimeBy A. B. InspiredTropicsFor MelbaMy Name Is Afrika (1971)The Air I HearImpulseShotgunMayibuye iAfrikaCould BeRandom Notes to My SonTo MotherMy People No Longer SingTo a Black Woman, InsaneTo My DaughterSift and ShiftVector or LegacyBleached Callouses, Africa, 1966The Lip TrickThe Nitty-GrittyTimeNew DawnInherent and Inherited MistrustsSymptomsFlirtationConditionedInnuendoAxiomaticBandung DanceFor AfroamericaNo CelebrationIn the NudeOf Yesterday’s TomorrowsEpitaphLike the Tide: CloudwardNo Tears in the TideTowards a Walk in the SunThe Spearhead Wind StridesThe Gods WroteThe Long ReachThe New BreedFor Eusi, Ayi Kwei & Gwen BrooksRecreationPoint of Departure: Fire Dance Fire SongI. The Elegance of MemoryII. Lumumba SectionIII. Fire DanceIV. Spirits UnchainedFor Sons of Sonless FathersNotes from No SanctuaryThe Present Is a Dangerous Place to Live (1974, 1993)For IpelengThe Present Is a dangerous Place to Live . . . OneI. In the MourningII. Beware of DreamsIII. Without ShadowIV. Mirrors, without SongMystiqueThere Are No Sanctuaries except in Purposeful Action . . . Two1.2. When Things Fall Apart3. Exile4. Perception5. Logistics. . . ThreeBlues for Some Literary Friends & MyselfHome Is Where the Music Is . . . FourFor Billie HolidayFor Art Blakey and the Jazz MessengersFor B. B. King and LucilleAcknowledgementPro/CreationFor Hughie MasekelaPlaces and Bloodstains (1975)Requiem for My MotherEpitaph for Can ThembaFor GwigwiFor TWFor Otis ReddingHere We Are Like the PresentLetter to SkunderFor Zeke and DennisFor Cecil AbrahamsAfter MonganeSon of MokaeSong for Ilva Mackay and MonganeFor Montshiwa & PhetoeOpen LetterPlaces and BloodstainsHeartprints (1980)Letter to Ipeleng on Her Birthday 1976When the Clouds Clear (1990)The Long Arm of the BluesThe Same Strip of LandRites of PassageDanceMorning in TunisSharper Than Any Blade You KnowBleeding RedLuthuli DetachmentWhen the Clouds ClearRed SongFrom Now On. . . .For OlinkaAn Injury to One Is an Injury to AllEvery Patriot a CombatantQuestKateJune 16 Year of the SpearChimid: A MemorialSeaparankoeHere You Almost StartedA Luta ContinuaNew AgeManifestoSouth Africa Salutes UzbekistanTo the Bitter End (1995)Coil of TimeWhat Time Is It?In the Wheeling and Dealing TimeRites of Passage: (1991)DumalisileI AmManboyWhen the Deal Goes DownYears without TearsStrange RitualsGrand Papa DhlomoFor David RubadiriFor Bra NtemiFidelityMontage: Bouctou LivesHeart to HeartWe Are All InvolvedEven Skin DisappearsIf I Could Sing (2002)RecollectionsVenceremosAffirmationMemorialIf I Could SingRenaissanceRejoiceThis Way I Salute You (2004)For Johnny DyaniSantamariaCassandra Wilson Will SingWhere Her Eye SitseThekwiniFor Gloria BosmanFor Our Mother of the Heavy NamesHomesoil in My Blood (2018)No BoundariesNo Serenity HereLetter from HavanaIn the NamingAnguish Longer Than SorrowWounded DreamsI Am No StrangerWe Are All Involved (2012)Of Shadows and ChameleonsFestive HeartI Know a Few ThingsNew DayFor Fernando, Gloria, Eduardo and the 2012 TeamFor Sterling PlumppFor Hu XianchengUncollected (1971)Carbon-Copy Whiteman or Sexual RefugeeThe AwakeningManifesto (1971)‘Yes, Mandela, We Shall Be Moved’Fruitful Seed (1971)Freedom Train, 1965Introduction to a Future History BookSource Acknowledgments